Thankful for What?
by Qweb
Summary: Rocket and Steve Rogers contemplate life post-Infinity War and, maybe, find something to be thankful for.


_A/N: This is post Infinity War, so kind of sad, but hopeful at the end, I think._

* * *

 **Thankful for What?**

Rocket looked deflated. His ears drooped and, though clean, his fur was unkempt. Nebula had gotten a message through. His former enemy was the only one left of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and she was only a Guardian in-law.

All his friends were gone. He sniffed and wiped his snout with the back of his hand. (It's not a paw, pal, it's a hand. I ain't an animal.)

He remembered bickering with Quill, sparring with Gamora, making jokes that Drax never got. Mostly he remembered years palling around with Groot, then raising him from a twig to surly adolescence. Groot had just regained his adult power, and now he was gone. Dissolved into ash like so many others.

Rocket sniffed again.

Now he was stranded on a strange planet. At least he'd fallen in with a group that understood he was a vertically challenged alien and not a talking animal that should be in a sideshow or an experimental lab. He shivered. He'd been in both and didn't want to go back.

Though maybe this planet wasn't in the mood for sideshows.

* * *

Steve Rogers sighed and rubbed his eyes. It was hard to be the leader of the Avengers right now. His best friends were no longer around to stand at his back. His remaining friends looked as shell-shocked as he felt.

And the world was going to hell in a hand basket.

Thanos' "beneficial" plan to remove half the world's population hadn't made more goods available to more people, because he'd also removed half the people who made and moved those goods. The Earth had lost half its farmers, half its truck drivers, half the people who knew how to make things. Half the police and firefighters, too.

News reports said there were food shortages everywhere and people fighting to control what remained.

Even Wakanda was unsettled, with a young queen obsessed with bringing back her brother. But, despite its technology, many Wakandans still lived close to the land, so food wasn't the problem it was in many other countries.

President Thaddeus Ross — of course that bastard had survived when better men had disappeared — had closed the borders of the United States, after first expelling all the powered people he could get to. Mainly Clint Barton, still on house arrest, still in shock from losing half his family. Laura had just picked up Nathaniel when she cried out. Clint had dived to catch his toddler son as Laura dissolved in front of him. Clint ended up sitting in a pile of his wife's ashes while Nathaniel cried for his mother and lila ran in weeping because Cooper was gone. At least Ross had let Clint bring Nathaniel and Lila, his two surviving children, with him into exile in Wakanda where he could join the rest of the "failures" that made up the Avengers.

As if Ross and his troops had even managed to fire a shot at Thanos' attack teams.

For the whole trip, Clint had been stony-faced and businesslike, until Natasha hugged him at the airport. Then Nat and the depleted Barton family had broken down in tears, witting on the floor in a watery huddle.

Steve wouldn't deny he had cried, too.

But Steve couldn't break down. He had to stay strong. Tony Stark was still alive and limping back to earth in a damaged spaceship. He said someone named Doctor Strange had seen the future and the Avengers still had a chance to beat Thanos. They still had a chance to undo "The Snap."

* * *

Steve banished gloomy thoughts and pasted a smile on his face as he entered the Avengers compound in Wakanda, carrying a skinned goat and some sort of plucked game bird that he'd caught with his bare hands. A string bag full of fruits and vegetables from the market dangled from one arm. The Wakandans had been kind to the foreigners who had fought ferociously if futilely on Wakandan soil.

The sight of food made Rocket's ears rise slightly with interest. "You planning a party, Rogers?" he asked in his gruff voice.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Steve answered, as the other Avengers began to gather around. "It's a feast day in America, my home country," he added, in case Rocket didn't know that.

"Hell, it's Thanksgiving, isn't it?" Clint said.

"Language, daddy," Lila reminded him. She was a brave little thing who tried hard to act normally for Nathaniel's sake (and her dad's).

"Sorry, pumpkin," Clint apologized, making a Thanksgiving Dad joke.

"Thanksgiving? Really?" Rocket scoffed. "What have we got to be thankful for? Everyone's gone." The last part came out in almost a sob.

Steve put his hand on Rocket's shoulder, consciously refraining from ruffling the alien's fur, because he wasn't an animal.

"I know better than most what it's like to lose everything, everyone you care about," Steve said.

Rocket's ears drooped in apology, because he'd heard the story of the man out of time. "But we still have each other," Steve said. "According to Tony, we still have a chance to right this wrong. So we can be thankful for the friends we had ..." He closed his eyes for a moment thinking of Bucky and Sam who had followed him and T'Challa who had stood by him. "And we can be thankful for the friends we have now," he said, looking around fondly. Then his voice grew more firm, ringing with determination. "And we can be thankful for the friends we will have again!"

"Amen!" Clint said strongly, as Bruce and Rhodey and Nat and Thor nodded.

"Amen," Rocket echoed. "Whatever that means. Now we'd better get to work. That food won't cook itself."

For the first time, good cheer radiated from the Avengers compound as the team began to prepare their Thanksgiving meal.

* * *

 _A/N: Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrate, and a good day if you don't._


End file.
